In my opinion there is no upside to running plugin/map/whitelist cups instead of a season. Of course testing of the game should be carried out, but this could easily happen in the off season. In raf’s proposed dates there would still be a month where cups could be held to test these changes. In the past the cups have had really poor signups from the top few divisons, and therefore dont show the impacts of the changes as well as lower division teams as they dont push the limits of the game as much.
I strongly believe that if etf2l takes this decision it would be a disaster for the league. This would completely kill players and teams motivation as there wont be any real competition until january. I feel this is a missed opportunity to have one of the best seasons in recent history. Due to covid 19 people actually want to play an online league (which is really rare) as there is no chance of lans happening soon. Why not embrace this amazing chance of having a more popular season amongst all divisions, and probably a more competitive/exciting prem. I just cant understand why on earth would you pull the season and let players and teams hang around until january. I am convinced that this would lead to some players moving away from tf2 all together and by january possibly shrink the european scene.